This is the tale of two photographs. One image was difficult to find and required a great deal of hard looking and seeing. The other image found ME while I was napping on the couch.
Photograph #1: I recently bought a sweet new 100-400mm zoom lens. It’s a lens some would think I would have owned a long time ago, but I have other lenses close to that range that are smaller and lighter, and those have served me well (one can only carry and use so many lenses.) Anyway, the new 100-400 was not inexpensive and I felt the need to produce a worthy image, as soon as possible, or risk unbearable feelings of Consumer Guilt. Early one morning I took a camera body and the new lens to a wetland area near my house to photograph wild ducks. I am not a wildlife photographer--I know that, I think the ducks knew that. I approached the wetland and the ducks flew away. I was left alone to explore the edges of a pond and, to be honest, much of what I saw was not all that visually appealing. I looked and looked and looked. There had to be a photograph there. Eventually I found an image that pleased me--grasses and reeds and water reflections. It was an image I could easily have done with one of my old lenses. (Note to self regarding camera gear: Keep It Simple, Stupid.)
Photograph #2. I shot a wedding last Saturday, which is go-go-go, fairly intense work. I’m a hiker and a climber and a cyclist and I'm pretty fit, but it’s weird: I am darned tired after a wedding. So Sunday, there I am, kicked-back on our dog-worn, battered-but-comfy couch. I looked toward the entryway of our house and noticed cool patterns of light, shadow and walls. Very abstract. I had my point-and-shoot camera in my pocket and without getting up from the couch made a number of fun little images.
(Note to self: Next time you want to spend money, you don't really need another lens, but Leah would be happy if we considered having the couch recovered.)
